Categories

“On a recent Friday afternoon, a group of St. Thomas students gathered in a room at the Facilities and Design Center. Standing in a circle, they verbally tossed random words to their classmates until the room was swirling with excitement.”

Categories

“Students in Minnesota who live nearly an hour from a big city log plenty of time on buses, whether they’re traveling to away games with the hockey team or going on field trips with the science club.

Eastern Carver County Schools in Chaska, Minn., wanted to make those long bus rides more productive and help teachers put that otherwise wasted time to good use. But to do that they needed to put the internet on wheels.”

Categories

“A new technology center in Cedar-Riverside will connect youth from immigrant families to high-end technology. Kids and teenagers are already testing the equipment and professional software tools at the new technology center in the Brian Coyle Center on West Bank, which will officially open Dec. 4.”

Categories

“ST. LOUIS PARK, Minn. – Just 18 percent of computer science majors are women. That’s down from 37 percent in 1984. And women only make up 24 percent of the computer engineering workforce, according to a study by Girls Who Code and Accenture. That’s why St. Louis Park-based nonprofit Code Savvy’s female-only program, called Rebecca Coder Dojo, is taking on the tech industry – offering free coding classes to girls.”

Categories

“Five years ago, husband and wife Steve and Mary Grove, directors of Google News Lab and Google for Entrepreneurs, respectively, wanted to find a way to use their connections in the tech industry to give back to Steve’s home state of Minnesota.

The pair launched Silicon North Stars, a nonprofit organization that aims to introduce tech to Minnesota high school students — primarily those from minority and underrepresented backgrounds. In concert with Giving Tuesday, the pair has launched a $10,000 crowdfunding campaign to help cover some of the costs of their annual program.”

Categories

“St. Paul, Minn. – 110 Macalester students making up 21 teams will work more than 24 hours non-stop during Macalester’s sixth Macathon, beginning at 4:30 p.m., Friday, November 10, and ending at 8 p.m. Saturday, November 11. Macalester students will compete for cash prizes and the opportunity for feedback from successful alumni entrepreneurs, technologists, and investors. No preparation work is allowed. Everything for the competition must be produced within the 24-hour period.”

“Best Buy is expanding an after-school tech program for underprivileged teens as it hopes to create workers with the skills to serve increasingly savvy shoppers as well as groom future inventors who can help fill its stores with new gadgets.

The Minneapolis-based chain said Wednesday the number of tech centers will grow to 60 from 11 over the next three years. The centers, hosted by nonprofit organizations with strong financial support from Best Buy, let teens explore technology such as robotics and 3-D printing.”

Categories

“It wasn’t all that long ago that a Carlson School MBA student interacting with Amazon was a rarity. The company came to Minneapolis to recruit from the school’s Master of Arts in Human Resources & Industrial Relations Program, but didn’t heavily recruit MBAs. That’s no longer the case, thanks in large part to Dan Jedda, ’99 MBA and Amazon’s vice president of finance for digital, advertising, and corporate development.”

Categories

“Most colleges and universities are finding it very challenging to cultivate strong startup communities like those found at leading institutions like Stanford and Yale. But if we take a deeper look at these leading institutions, and how others are responding to this challenge, we can build a repeatable model to support the the rise of the rest.”